Bone fractures may take many forms: complete, incomplete, simple, comminuted, closed, or open. Fractures may also be associated with separation of connections between soft tissue and bone. Fractures, with and without soft tissue separation, often require stabilization to promote faster healing and unimpaired function. Stabilization may return function and mobility for the injured area earlier than treatment without stabilization. Fracture fixation and stabilization procedures are generally of two types, internal or external. External fixation methods may include slings, splints, or casts. Internal fixation methods may employ wires, pins and screws, bone plates, and intramedullary nails or rods.
Fractures treated with bone plates may be treated by exposing the fracture site and reducing the bone fracture, then placing a plate onto the bone to secure the fracture for healing in the reduced position. In reducing the bone, the fracture and surrounding bone are realigned and positioned in the original bone position or a similar stable position. Bone plates may be used in flexible fracture fixation or rigid fixation. Flexible fixation occurs where the fracture fragments displace in relation to each other when a load is applied across the fracture site. Rigid fixation techniques employ plates and screws in order to limit displacement of fracture fragments in relation to each other.
Where fractures are associated with the separation of bone and soft tissue, such as ligaments or tendons, the separation may take the form of a separation of the soft tissue at the osseous junction or a fracture at a tuberosity. Tuberosities, the bone site for attachment between tendon and bone, may be displaced in a fracture. Ligaments and tendons may be detached from the bone at the fibro-osseous junction, which is the connection between the soft tissue and bone. Where a fracture is associated with a tendon or ligament separation, fixation of the fracture may require anchoring of the tendon or ligament to the bone.
Suture anchors are commonly used to anchor soft tissue to bone. Suture anchors are generally implanted into the bone so as to secure one or more sutures extending from a body used to secure the soft tissue by holding the tissue in position to the bone. Bone plates have also been used as a securing element for sutures. The sutures have been secured to the plate by threading the sutures through holes in the plate before the plate is secured to the bone. The use of bone plates to anchor sutures in this manner often limits the suture attachment locations available to a surgeon, particularly after the plate has been attached to the bone.